The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1887-06-11

journal especially falr and friendly
to the labor movement, the words of
Mr.. George, as follows:
by the time the people of any such
country as England or the United States
are sufficiently aroused to the injustice
and disadvantages of individual owner
ship of land to induce them to attempt
its naturalization, they will be sufficient
ly aroused to nationalize it in much
more direct and easy way than by pur-
chase. They will not trouble themselves
about compromising the proprietors of
land"
That journal is compelled to pro-
nounce this utterance ''immoral'' as
well it may.
Not long since a German Socialist,
just landed in this country, visited De-
troit and made an evening speech, stir
ring up the rage of his hearers by de-
claring wage slavery to be worse than
chattel slavery. The next step is the
advice of Anarchist leaders in Chicago,
as reported in the Inter- Ocean. "Have
nothing to do with the ballot-box
humbug, but trust to dynamite and
knives" Mr.. George would not ap-
prove of this last step, but he who sows
dragons teeth must expect crop of
armed men.
"God made the land; it is his bounty
to the human race. Where does any
man, or set of men, get the right to par
eel out and sell this heritage of our heav-
emily Father to all his children alike?"
God made iron and gold. What right
has any man to sell these bounties to
the human race? He made "the cat
tie on thousand hills" What right
has farmer to sell an OK? Land and
iron and cattle were created for us to
use and improve. They will not sup
port any human being who sits idly
with folded hands. 1t is our task to
mold and shape and make more pro-
ductive. He who FORCES and fashions
the iron owns the bar, as the fruit of
his toll and skill. He has changed it
from the useless ore to the useful bar.
Wild land is as useless as iron ore.
Make this earth wilderness and the
scanty fruit would not keep quarter
of the human race alive. Labor and
skill have TRANSPORTED the wilderness
with fruitful farms and gardens. Has
the man who has done this, or have the
generations of men who have wrought
this benefcent result, no right to the
soil they have improved? If not, there
can be no right to iron or gold or cattle,
common property must rule, no man
can own anything. HI. G. Carey tells
us that the farm lands of New York
and Pennsylvania were valued at $780,
O00, 900 in 1850; and that, were they all
put back in their wild state and their pre-
sent estimated value given to a company
of capitalists who should drain and clear
and improve them up to their present
condition, the money would not pay for
quarter Of the great cost. The same
showing would be made in regard to
costly city lots even. To take these
lands, which Mr.. George holds is right,
would be to rob men of the fruits of
their toll.
Wages Not High Where Land is Low.
To this country, as most affecting us,
will our plain facts mostly relate. 1t
is true that wages are relatively high
where land is low, or low where land
is high9 Exactly the reverse is true. Let
us first look at manufacturing wages,
as given in the United States census
for 1880.
In Massachusetts and Rhode Island
land is high. but in the first State the
average yearly wages per head are 1864;
in the second $40. In Michigan, land
is lower in price, and the wages aver
age 1926. Iowa, with land still lower,
gives an average of 5000, and North
Carolina, with land least valuable, had
an average of only 1852 in its few man
ufactures.
These averages include both city and
country. If we look at cities, where
land and rent are highest and where in
accord with the Progress and Poverty"
theory, wages should be relatively low
est, we lind by Report on Labor from
the State department at Washington
in 1878, that the average weekly wages
in seventeen trades-bricklaye black
smiths, shoemakers, tc.,-was $12.7O
in New York, and $11.50 in Chicago.
In the latter city it was said that the
daily pay of the thousands of meat-pack
ers engaged in the late strikes was over
$3.50. Relative to cost of living city
wages in these leading trades are quite
as good as those in the country, and
both refute the assertion that wages
are low where land is high.
How is it with the millions employ
ed in agricultural? Their wages too will
be found highest where land is most
valuable. The value of farm land in
creases in the vicinity of large mills
and factories. In 1884 an excellent
pamphlet, Farm and Factory" was
prepared by Hon. j. R. Dodge, Stats
tician of the U. S. Agricultural Depart
ment, from which our facts are taken.
Fifty years ago the average of farm
| xpaoaa oil ouar the land WAS 60 nar